Government and society

Constitutional framework

On Dec. 22, 1990, the constitution of the Republic of Croatia was promulgated. In addition to such classic civil rights as freedom of speech, religion, information, and association, the equality of nationalities is guaranteed in a number of constitutional articles. Cultural autonomy, along with the right to use one’s own language and script (the latter specifically intended for the Serb minority), is also guaranteed.

The 1990 constitution changed the structure of the Sabor (parliament) from a tricameral body under the Yugoslav system to a bicameral body consisting of the House of Representatives (lower house) and the House of Districts (upper house). Constitutional amendments in 2001 abolished the upper house, thereby rendering the Sabor a unicameral body. Members are elected from party lists every four years. In addition, a small percentage of seats are reserved for national minorities and for representatives of Croats living outside the country.

The president of the republic is elected directly by popular vote for a period of five years and is limited to two terms. The 1990 constitution originally granted the president very broad powers; this “superpresident” appointed and could dismiss the prime minister, who was nominally responsible to both the parliament and the president but was actually directly dependent on the president. Constitutional amendments in 2000 reduced the importance of the president, who thenceforth served solely as head of state, and increased the power of the parliament and of the prime minister, who assumed the role of head of government. The president continues to nominate the prime minister, but the Sabor must confirm the appointment. In addition, the prime minister is typically the head of the leading party in the Sabor.

Local government

Below the national level, Croatia is divided into 20 administrative districts called županije (counties). One city, Zagreb, has an administrative status equivalent to that of the counties. Within the županije are hundreds of općine (municipalities).

Justice

The Supreme Court, county courts, and municipal courts constitute the three-tiered judicial system. The Supreme Court is the highest legal authority in all matters but constitutional questions, which are decided by the Constitutional Court. Justices on the Supreme Court are appointed by a judicial council, which is elected by the Sabor. The independence of the judiciary has been questioned, largely because many of the judges who were politically appointed in the 1990s remained in office well into the 21st century. However, there have been significant reforms to the judiciary, largely under EU pressure.

Political process

Suffrage is universal from age 18, although employed individuals may vote beginning at age 16. Multiparty elections have been held in Croatia since independence. The Croatian Democratic Union (Hrvatska Demokratska Zajednica; HDZ) and the Social Democratic Party (Socijaldemokratska partija Hrvatske; SDP) are the predominant political parties. The HDZ dominated politics in the first years of the post-Yugoslav era, having come to power in the parliamentary elections of 1990. The party leader, Franjo Tudjman, served as the first president of independent Croatia. The HDZ initially based its ideology on Croatian nationalism and the struggle for independence, but it began to lose favour after the war ended in 1995 and the population felt the pain of economic collapse. In 2000, the year after Tudjman died, the HDZ was resoundingly defeated in parliamentary and presidential elections. A multiparty centre-left coalition, led by the SDP, then governed until 2003, when the HDZ, having repositioned itself as a typical centre-right party, returned to power. The HDZ and the SDP continued to be the main contenders in subsequent elections. Both parties favoured Croatian accession to the EU.

Security

Croatia’s armed forces—comprising an army, a navy, and an air force—were created in the early 1990s with significant support from the international community, particularly the United States. Although Croatia had no army to speak of when it declared independence in 1991, within a few years an army had been trained and equipped sufficiently to be able to conduct two major operations to reclaim territory from Serb paramilitaries in 1995. However, Croatia is not a militaristic country, and it relies on the security of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which it joined in 2009.

The Croatian police force, under the authority of the central government, has been reformed since independence. Reform efforts have focused on improving service and stamping out corruption.

Health, welfare, and housing

The health of Croatians is good compared with that of the populations of neighbouring countries. Life expectancy at birth is higher than the eastern European average, and the infant mortality rate is significantly lower. The rate of HIV infection is low, reflecting competent prevention efforts. However, the health care system is in need of investment and far-reaching reform because, being almost entirely state-provided, it imposes a substantial burden on the budget. The social welfare system is also burdensome, partly because Croatia has a large number of retirees and unemployed individuals. In urban areas, large portions of the population live in concrete tower blocks built during the Yugoslav era, which are in dire need of investment.

Education

During its 45 years in power, the communist Yugoslav regime reduced illiteracy in Croatia from 16 percent of the population over 10 years of age to less than 4 percent. By the early 21st century, the literacy rate for Croatians over age 14 was nearly 99 percent. In addition to thousands of elementary schools, secondary schools, commercial and technical institutions, and vocational schools, the Yugoslav emphasis on education led to the founding of universities in Rijeka in 1973, in Split in 1974, and in Osijek in 1975. The oldest university in Croatia is the University of Zagreb (1669), which traces its beginnings to a Jesuit school of moral theology founded in 1632.

Cultural life

Cultural milieu

The Yugoslav version of communism—which evolved following Yugoslavia’s 1948 break with the Soviet Union and the agency of international communism known as Cominform—allowed far greater autonomy and self-expression in cultural and other spheres of life than did the communist societies of most of Yugoslavia’s neighbours. As a result, Croatian culture was able to develop in continuity with the Western heritage of which it has long been a part and to which it has contributed for the last thousand years.

Daily life and social customs

With a predominantly Roman Catholic population, Croatia observes Catholic religious holidays. Other important national holidays commemorate historical events. Anti-Fascist Resistance Day, June 22, marks the formation of the first Partisan unit in Croatia in 1941. Statehood Day, June 25, celebrates Croatia’s declaration of independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. Independence Day, marking the day in 1991 on which Croatia formally broke with Yugoslavia, is October 8.

Croatian cuisine is heavily influenced by Turkish, central European, and Italian cuisine. Typical dishes are cabbage leaves stuffed with minced meat, ćevapčići (rolls of seasoned grilled meat), dumplings, and pickles. Along the coast, fish is served with blitva, a dish of Swiss chard mixed with potatoes and crushed garlic in olive oil. There are also local delicacies, such as cheese from the island of Pag and wine from any number of good-quality small producers, particularly in Dalmatia.

The arts

Croatians take pride in their literary tradition, which dates to about 1100, with the dedication of the Baška Tablet (Bašćanska Ploča), a stone monument inscribed with Glagolitic script that was found in the 19th century on the island of Krk. The first printed book in the Croatian language was Hrvoje’s Missal, a liturgical text printed in 1483. Among the 20th-century giants in Croatian literature are the much-translated novelist, poet, essayist, dramatist, polemicist, and critic Miroslav Krleža (1893–1981) and the lyric poet, essayist, and translator Tin Ujević (1891–1955), both of whom treated psychological and sociopolitical struggles at individual and universal levels.

The monumental sculptures of the Croatian-born American artist Ivan Meštrović (1883–1962), whom the French sculptor Auguste Rodin once called “the biggest phenomenon among sculptors,” synthesize a particularly Croatian national romanticism with the entire European tradition. His works include many religious reliefs and figures carved in walnut. Meštrović designed his own house in Split, now used as a museum for his works.

Portrait of the Artist, plaster sculpture by Ivan Meštrović, 1915; in the Tate Gallery, London.Courtesy of the trustees of the Tate, London

Croatian visual artists also have been active in several other genres. Hundreds of painters and photographers are represented in galleries throughout the country, and traditional Croatian arts, including fine textile and lacework, can still be seen. Croatian naive painting, through a simple depiction of the timeless concerns of men and women, struck a universal chord in the mid- to late 20th century and brought worldwide fame to its main exponents, Ivan Generalić, Ivan Rabuzin, and Ivan Lacković-Croata.

Film enjoys a particularly important place in contemporary Croatian culture. The Zagreb school of film animation has acquired world renown and recognition, including an Academy Award in 1961 for Dušan Vukotić’s animated film The Substitute. Since 1972, Zagreb has periodically hosted an international animated film festival. Acclaimed Croatian filmmakers of the late 20th and early 21st centuries include Dejan Šorak, Krsto Papić, and Zrinko Ogresta.

Croatians enjoy music of many varieties, ranging from folk to opera, jazz, and rock. In Croatia and among the Croatian diaspora, traditional music featuring the tamburitza, a stringed instrument similar to a mandolin (see alsotanbur), has a fervid following. In addition, the traditional kolo dance is still performed at weddings and festivals. Zagreb, Split, and Dubrovnik teem with nightclubs that showcase local musical talent. Tereza Kesovija, arguably Croatia’s most famous singer, first received acclaim in the 1960s as a singer of French chansons. In the late 20th and early 21st centuries Sandra Nasić sang and wrote lyrics for Guano Apes, one of Germany’s most popular rock groups.

Cultural institutions

UNESCO has inscribed several sites in Croatia on its World Heritage List. These include the old city of Dubrovnik and the historical area of Split that contains ruins of the palace of the Roman emperor Diocletian. Zagreb hosts the National Theatre, the National and University Library, and a concert hall named after the 19th-century Croatian composer Vatroslav Lisinski.

Sports and recreation

Like most Europeans, Croatians are passionate about football (soccer). Since independence, Croatia’s national team, made up largely of players from Zagreb and Split, has performed with great distinction. Basketball is also widely popular, with Croatian club teams winning several European championships. The well-known basketball player Dražen Petrović played for Croatia’s Olympic team in 1992 as well as in the National Basketball Association. Croatian tennis players have performed well in international competitions; in particular, Goran Ivanišević won the men’s Wimbledon championship in 2001.

Croatian athletes participated on Yugoslavia’s Olympic team from 1948. The independent Republic of Croatia formed a national Olympic committee in 1991, and its athletes competed at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, where its basketball squad earned the silver medal. The country’s greatest Summer Olympics strengths are handball (for which it won gold medals in 1996 and 2004) and weight lifting (one gold in 2000), as well as rowing, water polo, sailing, swimming, and gymnastics. Croatia also has performed well in the Winter Olympics, with Alpine skier Janica Kostelić winning a total of four gold medals in 2002 and 2006 and her brother, Ivica Kostelić, winning silver medals in 2006 and 2010.

Croatia has a number of national parks and reserves that are popular with hikers and other nature enthusiasts. Plitvička Lakes National Park features an extensive waterfall system. The stunning natural beauty of many of Croatia’s islands is preserved in the national parks of Brijuni, Kornati, and Mljet. The North Velebit, Paklenica, and Risnjak national parks encompass mountainous terrain, while the Krka National Park is centred on the river of the same name.

Media and publishing

During the 1990s, the Croatian media appeared to be easily influenced by the political agenda of the government. Although media freedom and independence have progressed significantly since that time, market pressures now may pose a greater threat to media freedom. Several newspapers, based in various cities, focus on politics or business, but a number of the daily papers are tabloids. Croatia’s well-respected independent weekly newspaper, Feral Tribune, closed down in 2008 because of financial problems. The departure of Feral left Nacional, another weekly, as the main source of independent commentary. However, the assassination of its editor in 2008 revived concerns about freedom of the press.

Television is dominated by the state provider, Croatian Radio-Television (Hrvatska Radiotelevizija; HRT), which derives a good portion of its revenue from a compulsory subscription fee. It has some respected current affairs programs but largely focuses on sports and entertainment. Two significant privately owned channels are Nova TV and RTL; both tend toward sensationalism. In addition to the HRT-run radio networks, there are a few private radio operations.

The territory of Croatia bridges the central European and Mediterranean worlds, and its history has been marked by this position as a borderland. It lay near the division between the two halves of the Roman Empire and between their Byzantine and Frankish successors. The Eastern and Western churches competed for influence there, and, as the frontier of Christendom, it confronted the limits of Muslim expansion into Europe. As a part of Yugoslavia after both World Wars, it struggled within the Serbian-dominated state of the interwar years and emerged from World War II as a separate republic in the communist federation that navigated between the Soviet and Western blocs. All these competing interests have had an influence on Croatia’s development.

Croatia to the Ottoman conquests

The lands where the Croats would settle and establish their state lay just within the borders of the Western Roman Empire. In the 6th and 7th centuries ce, Slavs arrived in the western Balkans, settling on Byzantine territory along the Adriatic and in the hinterland and gradually merging with the indigenous Latinized population. Eventually they accepted the Roman Catholic Church, though preserving a Slavonic liturgy. In the 9th century an independent Croatian state developed with its centre in northern Dalmatia, later incorporating Croatia proper and Slavonia as well. This state grew into a powerful military force under King Tomislav (reigned c. 910–928). Croatia retained its independence under native kings until 1102, when the crown passed into the hands of the Hungariandynasty. The precise terms of this relationship later became a matter of dispute. Nonetheless, even under dynastic union with Hungary, institutions of separate Croatian statehood were maintained through the Sabor (an assembly of Croatian nobles) and the ban (viceroy). In addition, the Croatian nobles retained their lands and titles.

Over the following centuries, the area associated with the name Croatia shifted gradually north and west as its territory was eroded, first with the loss of Dalmatia to Venice by 1420 and then as a result of Ottoman conquests in the 16th century. The Croatian nobility maintained their claims to lands occupied by the Ottomans, hoping to repossess them once liberated. A Croatian national tradition also survived within these territories, as well as in lands under Venetian rule. A broader Croatian ethnic identity would be further consolidated among the Catholics of Dalmatia and of Bosnia and Herzegovina during the nationalist movements of the 19th century.

The AustrianHabsburgs, elected to the throne of Croatia in 1527 after the death of King Louis II of Hungary at the Battle of Mohács, defended the “remnant of the remnants” of Croatia by establishing the Military Frontier (German: Militärgrenze; Serbo-Croatian: Vojna Krajina), a defensive zone along the border with the Ottoman-controlled lands. Because it was ruled directly by the Habsburg war council, the Military Frontier further reduced the amount of land under the control of Croatian nobles, the Sabor, and the ban. Furthermore, its military units and their land rights attracted not only some Croatian peasants but also a larger Orthodox inflow from the Ottoman-conquered territories. Such was the origin of Croatia’s minority Serb population.

Under the pressures caused by the Ottoman invasions and increased obligations to landlords, the position of the Croatian peasantry deteriorated, leading to a number of rebellions—most notably in 1573. The nobility, too, was under pressure from Habsburg absolutism. An anti-Habsburg conspiracy of Croatian and Hungarian nobles was unsuccessful, and its leaders, including Petar Zrinski, ban of Croatia, were executed in 1671. Their extensive properties in Croatia were confiscated by the Habsburg crown.

Ragusa and the Croat Renaissance in Dalmatia

The Adriatic port of Ragusa had been founded by Latinized colonists, but by the 14th century it had been largely Slavicized and had acquired its alternate name of Dubrovnik. The largely Croat republic of Ragusa maintained a precarious autonomy under the suzerainty of Venice, Hungary, and (after 1397) the Ottoman Empire. Its wealth as a trading power was based on its role as an intermediary between East and West, and it nurtured a flourishing cultural life. In the 16th and 17th centuries, Ragusa and other Dalmatian cities under the rule of Venice became the centre of the Croat Renaissance, which produced, in addition to works of art and science, an extensive and powerful literature that had a lasting influence on the development of the Croatian literary language. As a mercantile power, however, Ragusa eventually entered a decline parallel to that of Venice, so that by the 18th century it had become little more than an economic backwater. Ragusa retained its autonomy as a city-state until 1806, when it was occupied by Napoleon I’s armies. During the French occupation of all of Dalmatia, which lasted until 1813, the region was designated as part of the Illyrian Provinces, where education and publications in South Slav languages were allowed.

Croatian national revival

From the end of the 17th century, the Habsburgs began to regain Croatian crown lands, first from the Ottomans (with the treaties of Carlowitz in 1699 and Passarowitz in 1718) and then from Venice after the Napoleonic Wars (confirmed by the Congress of Vienna in 1815). For the most part these territories were not rejoined to Croatia but were either incorporated into the Military Frontier or organized as separate provinces—as in the case of Austrian Habsburg Dalmatia. Much of the land was distributed to German or Hungarian magnates and military dignitaries.

The Croat nobility was impoverished, often culturally assimilated, and too weak to withstand the Habsburg centralization and Germanization that began in the 18th century under the Austrian archduchess and Holy Roman empress Maria Theresa and continued under her son, the Holy Roman emperor Joseph II. As the best defense of their rights and privileges, the Croats turned to cooperation with the Hungarians, but this choice would later expose them to the rising force of Hungarian nationalism. When Hungarian, rather than Latin, was imposed as the official language in Hungary and Croatia, Croatian resistance took shape in the Illyrian movement of the 1830s and ’40s. The Illyrianists—primarily intellectuals, professionals, clergymen, and gentry led by the linguistic reformer Ljudevit Gaj—strove to defend Croatian interests by calling for the unification of all the South Slavs, to be facilitated through the adoption of a single literary language. Though the Illyrianists failed to win over the other South Slavs, they did succeed in integrating the linguistically and administratively divided Croats within one national movement.

Threatened by Hungarian nationalism in the Revolution of 1848 and hoping for national unification and autonomy within the Austrian Empire, the Croats, under Ban Josip Jelačić, an Illyrianist, sided with the Austrian dynasty against the Hungarians. Yet, instead of a reward, the Croats received the same central control and Germanization that were dealt out to the Hungarians as punishment. Reaction against these disappointments encouraged the development of the Party of Right, led by Ante Starčević, which emphasized the idea of Croatian “state rights” and aspired to the creation of an independent Great Croatia. The necessity of relying on the other South Slavs in opposition to the Habsburgs and Hungarians also kept alive the Illyrian idea, revived in the 1860s under the name Yugoslavism. The Yugoslavists, under the patronage of Bishop Josip Juraj Štrossmajer (Joseph George Strossmayer), advocated South Slav unity within a federated Habsburg state as the basis for an independent Balkan state. Croatian separatism and South Slav cooperation (Yugoslavism) thus became the two alternatives that would shape much of Croatian political thought in the future.

The Habsburg monarchy was reconstituted in 1867 as Austria-Hungary, with Croatia-Slavonia placed under the rule of Hungary and with Dalmatia, Istria, and the Military Frontier remaining under Vienna. Under an 1868 agreement between Croatia and Hungary, known as the Nagodba, Croatian statehood was formally recognized, but Croatia was in fact stripped of all real control over its affairs. The Sabor requested that Bosnia and Herzegovina, under Habsburg occupation from 1878, be incorporated into Croatia on the grounds that those lands had been part of the medieval kingdom. The request was rejected, but the Military Frontier was rejoined to Croatia in 1881. In the following decades, Hungarian domination of Croatian politics was maintained by Ban Károly Khuen-Héderváry, a Hungarian magnate, and supported by those in Croatia who favoured cooperation with Budapest. The government also gained support through concessions to the Serbs, who, with the incorporation of the Military Frontier, had become a larger proportion of Croatia’s population. These changes increased Croat-Serb antagonism in Croatia, as did the Croatian opposition’s demands for greater Croatian autonomy.

However, the crisis of Austro-Hungarian dualism and the accession of the Russophilic Karadjordjević dynasty in Serbia in 1903 created a more favourable climate for cooperation, embodied in the Croat-Serb Coalition of political parties. Launched by the Rijeka Resolution of 1905, the coalition emphasized the links between Croats and Serbs, and in the following years it attracted wide support. Discontent with the existing order contributed to the growing belief that the problems of Croatia could best be solved in a South Slav state, either within Austria-Hungary or outside it—although there was disagreement about what shape such a state would take and about the status of its constituent nationalities.

From World War I to the establishment of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes

New solutions to Croatia’s problems became possible with the dissolution of Austria-Hungary during World War I. However, Croatia’s postwar future was threatened by the 1915 Treaty of London, which promised Italy extensive Habsburg territories on the Adriatic in return for entering the war on the Allied side. Representatives of the Habsburg South Slavs in exile, led by the former Croat-Serb Coalition politicians Ante Trumbić and Frano Supilo, set up the Yugoslav Committee to promote the cause of a new Yugoslav state that was to be based on the national unity of the South Slavs and on the principle of self-determination. In July 1917 the leaders of the Yugoslav Committee and representatives of the Serbian government-in-exile signed the Corfu Declaration, announcing the intention of founding at the end of the war a unified South Slav state, conceived of as a democratic, constitutional, and parliamentary monarchy under the Karadjordjević dynasty. The agreement with Serbia would save Croatia from being partitioned by the Allies as part of vanquished Austria-Hungary, but the declaration did not specify whether the new state would be a federation of equal partners or would merely represent an extension of the Serbian administrative system.

At the same time, a movement for unification developed among South Slav politicians still living under Habsburg authority in Croatia. With the Habsburg monarchy collapsing, the peasantry in revolt, and the Serbian and Italian armies advancing toward Croatian territory, the Croatian Sabor voted in October 1918 to break relations with Austria-Hungary and declared the unification of the lands of Croatia, Dalmatia, and Slavonia in an independent Croatian state. Soon, however, the Sabor announced the incorporation of Croatia into a South Slav state and transferred its power to the newly created National Council of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs in Zagreb. One dissenting voice was that of Stjepan Radić, leader of the Croatian Peasant Party, who opposed unconditional unification with no reference to the will of the people of Croatia and with no guarantees of national equality in the future state. Notwithstanding the Peasant Party’s objections, in November 1918 representatives of the National Council, the Yugoslav Committee, and the Serbian government signed the Geneva declaration calling for the establishment of a South Slav state with a form of government to be decided by a national Constituent Assembly. On December 1, 1918, delegates of the National Council met Serbia’s regent, Alexander I, to affiliate themselves to the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes.

In many respects, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes represented an expansion of Serbian hegemony over new territories, particularly in Kosovo and Macedonia. In Croatia, discontent with the new state was demonstrated by the massive electoral success of Radić’s Croatian Peasant Party. Refusing to accept the unification act, Radić called instead for an independent Croatian peasant republic. In elections to the Constituent Assembly in 1920, his party received the fourth largest bloc of votes, but Radić boycotted the assembly, thus making possible the adoption of a constitution in 1921 that imposed a highly centralized administration on the new state. In the following decade the kingdom’s multiparty parliament came to be controlled by Serbian centralists, while Croatia’s elected representatives, led by Radić and the Peasant Party, continued to demand a federal system that would allow Croatia autonomy. The parliament made some progress in agrarian reform, with peasants receiving land expropriated from large estates. However, by 1928, when Radić and four other Croatian deputies were assassinated on the floor of the parliament by a Montenegrin deputy, national conflict had brought the political system to a standstill.

Under the dictatorship established in 1929, King Alexander attempted to override ethnic divisions by introducing a supranational patriotism symbolized by the new name of Yugoslavia. The internal borders of the country were redrawn, so that historical Croatia was subdivided into several new banovine (provinces) named after rivers and natural features. However, Croatian nationalism and opposition to the state system were not eradicated by this policy of unitarism—and neither was Serbian hegemony, which simply continued under the name of Yugoslavism. Political repression bred extremism among some opponents of the regime. In 1934 Alexander was assassinated as the result of a plot hatched by the Croatian Ustaša (“Insurgence”), a separatist association founded in 1929 by Ante Pavelić and enjoying the support of Italy’s fascist leader, Benito Mussolini. Unlike the majority of Croats, who still believed in a federal solution, members of the Ustaša insisted that only the destruction of Yugoslavia could liberate Croatia.

The new Yugoslav regent, Prince Paul Karadjordjević, permitted some relaxation in political life, though he prevented the restoration of full democratic rights. The desire for political change led to the formation of a united Yugoslav opposition, which argued for the reinstatement of democracy and for constitutional reform. In Croatia this opposition included the Peasant Party, now led by Vladko Maček. In the elections of 1938, the Peasant Party received 80 percent of the vote in Croatia and Dalmatia. Faced with such evidence of popular support for the opposition program, Prince Paul encouraged negotiations between the government and Maček. These culminated in the Sporazum (“Agreement”) of August 26, 1939, which created an autonomous Croatian banovina that was largely self-governing except in defense and foreign affairs. The agreement provoked resentment among the Serbs, even in the opposition.

War broke out soon after the Sporazum was signed, and Yugoslavia declared its neutrality. Invasion, occupation, and partition followed in 1941. In their campaign against Yugoslavia, the Germans exploited Croatian discontent, presenting themselves as liberators and inciting Croats in the armed forces to mutiny. In April 1941 Germans and Italians set up the Independent State of Croatia, which also embraced Bosnia and Herzegovina and those parts of Dalmatia that had not been ceded to Italy. Though in fact this state was under occupation by the German and Italian armies, Pavelić’s Ustaša was put into power—a takeover facilitated by the refusal of Maček to take part in a puppet government and by the passivity of the Roman Catholic archbishop of Zagreb, Alojzije Stepinac. Initially there was enthusiasm for the independent state, but once in power the Ustaša ruthlessly persecuted Serbs, Jews, Roma (Gypsies), and antifascist Croats. The Ustaša planned to eliminate Croatia’s Serb minority partly by conversion from Orthodoxy to Catholicism, partly by expulsion, and partly by extermination. As many as 350,000 to 450,000 victims were killed in Ustaša massacres and in the notoriousconcentration camp at Jasenovac.

Sporadic resistance, particularly by Croatia’s Serbs, began almost immediately, but it was the communist Partisans, under Josip Broz Tito (himself a Croat), who provided the resistance with leadership and a program. Croatian Serbs joined the Partisans in flight from Ustaša terror. Antifascist Croats subsequently were attracted by the Partisans’ broad popular front and by their emphasis on national self-determination, particularly the proposed reordering of postwar Yugoslavia along federal lines. Mass enlistment in their ranks made the Partisans more successful in Croatia and in Bosnia and Herzegovina than anywhere else outside their mountain strongholds. By 1944 most of Croatia—apart from the main cities—was liberated territory, and Croats were joining the Partisans’ ranks in large numbers. As the war neared its end, however, many Croats, especially those compromised by involvement with the Ustaša regime and those who opposed the communists, fled north along with other refugees toward the Allied armies. British commanders refused to accept their surrender and handed them over to the Partisans, who took a merciless revenge. Tens of thousands, including some civilians, were subsequently slaughtered on forced marches and in death camps.

After 1945 Croatia was a republic within the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. This new federation was intended to satisfy the national aspirations of all its peoples, but a centrally controlled Communist Party and a supranational push for Yugoslav unity undermined this structure. The effects were felt in Croatia in such matters as the purge in 1948 of the Croatian communist Andrija Hebrang and others who had supported first Croatian national interests and then the Soviet side in Tito’s split with Joseph Stalin. A later issue was the Partisan-based Serb predominance in the Yugoslav army and the local Croatian police. By the 1960s Croats had grown increasingly critical of the economic centralization that appropriated part of the republic’s income for investment in other parts of the federation.

Beginning in the early 1960s, the Yugoslav government instituted a number of economic reforms and attempts at political liberalization and decentralization. Encouraged in Croatia by a reformist party leadership under Miko Tripalo and Savka Dabčević-Kučar, these reforms contributed to the flowering of a “Croatian Spring” in 1969–71. The movement took the shape of a cultural and national revival, expressed in large part through the activities of the cultural organization Matica Hrvatska, but it soon culminated in calls for greater Croatian autonomy. Warning of the danger of civil war, Tito intervened and reimposed “democratic centralism” through a series of purges and trials that decimated the ranks of Croatian politicians and intellectuals. The political restrictions were not alleviated by the 1974 Yugoslav constitution: although the republics gained greater autonomy within the federation, they were still controlled by their single-party regimes.

This centralized control began to break down in the late 1980s, however. In 1989, as communist hegemony was challenged throughout eastern Europe, the Slovene and Croatian communists agreed to free multiparty elections. The right-wing, nationalist Croatian Democratic Union (Hrvatska Demokratska Zajednica; HDZ), led by Franjo Tudjman (a former party member who had been jailed during the suppression of the Croatian Spring), was victorious in the Croatian elections of 1990. The Serb minority was deeply alarmed by Croatia’s new constitution (promulgated in December 1990), which omitted Serbs as a “constituent people,” and by the actions of the new government, which purged Serbs from public administration, especially the police. Serbs’ fears also were aroused by accusations, especially from Belgrade, that Croatian nationalism meant a return to fascism and the anti-Serb violence of World War II.

When independence was declared on June 25, 1991, armed clashes spread in protest throughout Serb enclaves in Croatia. This violence coincided with the hasty withdrawal of the Yugoslav People’s Army from a newly independent Slovenia. Turning to oppose Croatia’s independence, a larger contingent of army forces attacked the new regime. In the ensuing war, the city of Vukovar in Slavonia was leveled by bombardment, Dubrovnik and other Dalmatian cities were shelled, and about one-third of Croatian territory was occupied by Yugoslav forces. Warfare was halted by an agreement whereby European troops, sponsored by the United Nations (UN), were installed in the disputed areas in order to stabilize and demilitarize them. Although Croatia was granted international recognition in 1992, the government’s control over its own territories remained incomplete.

Independent Croatia

In May and August 1995 two Croatian military offensives regained control of western Slavonia and central Croatia from rebel Serbs. Croatia was disappointed, however, when in November the U.S.-brokered Dayton Accords failed to provide a clear timetable for the return of eastern Slavonia to Zagreb’s control. In 1996 Slobodan Milošević, Serbia’s president and the effective leader of the rump Yugoslavia, agreed to give up claims to eastern Slavonia. Yugoslav troops then withdrew from the region under a UN mandate, and Yugoslavia established full diplomatic relations with Croatia. Croatia recovered full sovereignty over eastern Slavonia in 1998, and, with the withdrawal of UN troops from the Prelavka Peninsula in 2002, Croatia finally had full control of its territory.

Tudjman died in December 1999, and Stipe Mesić, who had broken with the HDZ over Tudjman’s autocratic rule, was elected president in February 2000. Mesić quickly moved to cut down corruption and to improve Croatia’s relations with its neighbours, but he failed to deliver on promises of early entry to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) or the European Union (EU). Croatia continued to suffer deep economic and political divisions, particularly over cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY), which indicted several Croatian generals who, according to many Croats, had heroic wartime reputations.

Stipe Mesić (right) with U.S. Pres. George W. Bush, 2008.Eric Draper/The White House

With the success of the HDZ in the 2003 parliamentary elections, Croatia’s broad-based coalition government fell, and HDZ leader Ivo Sanader became prime minister of a new centre-right government. In 2004 Croatia became an official EU candidate, but negotiations were postponed in 2005 after the ICTY raised concerns about the country’s commitment to bringing war criminals to justice. EU officials also questioned Croatia’s dedication to eliminating corruption. By the following year, however, several key suspects had been arrested or tried for war crimes, and the government had adopted a strong anticorruption strategy. These developments bolstered hopes that Croatia could join the EU by the end of the decade. Meanwhile, the country’s economy, helped by the spectacular growth of tourism, began to improve. The status of the much-reduced Serb minority also was boosted by the inclusion of an ethnic Serb in the cabinet of the HDZ-led coalition government that came to power in 2008. On April 1, 2009, NATO officially welcomed Croatia as a member of the alliance.

By mid-2009 the outlook was not as promising. Although neighbouring Slovenia—a member of both NATO and the EU—had agreed to Croatia’s NATO membership, it continued to block Croatian accession negotiations with the EU, claiming that the countries’ ongoing border dispute needed to be resolved first. (The dispute, focused on the maritime border in the Bay of Piran, had originated in 1991 when both countries seceded from Yugoslavia.) Adding to Croatia’s problems, the growing global financial crisis caused the economy to contract sharply during the first half of 2009, and by the end of the year it had suffered a decline of 6 percent of gross domestic product. Croatia faced yet another hurdle when Prime Minister Sanader resigned on July 1, 2009. Fellow HDZ member Jadranka Kosor, who had been serving as deputy prime minister, succeeded Sanader. She was the first woman to hold the Croatian prime ministership.

Kosor, JadrankaJadranka Kosor.Dominique Fagety—AFP/Getty Images

In January 2010 Ivo Josipović, a member of the opposition Social Democratic Party of Croatia (Socijaldemokratska partija Hrvatske; SDP), was elected president. Despite his political differences with the ruling HDZ, he promised to support Prime Minister Kosor’s goals of expediting EU membership talks and fighting corruption. Nevertheless, the relative inexperience of the two new leaders and the jockeying of their parties for advantage in the 2011 parliamentary elections kept their differences in play. The HDZ’s continued emphasis on an exclusively Croatian national identity and history still separated its adherents from many younger urban voters and the remaining Serb minority. Some HDZ supporters, for instance, objected to the public apology that Josipović made in April 2010 to Bosnia and Herzegovina for Croatia’s role in the warfare there in the early 1990s. Meanwhile, the SDP was drawn into the public’s continued concerns about EU membership when one of the party’s major supporters, a large public employees’ union, objected to labour-related conditions imposed by the EU on prospective members. The objections slowed the full-scale labour reform that would be needed for EU accession. Larger concerns for EU accession, however, remained judicial reform in general and the conclusion of several corruption trials in particular. Still, the fact that both major parties and the respected Croatian National Bank supported membership in the EU was a major advantage in the accession process, which had gained momentum after November 2009, when Slovenia and Croatia agreed to have their border dispute settled by international arbitration.

After more than a decade of effort and six years of formal talks, the accession process reached a final milestone in June 2011, when Croatia closed negotiations with the EU. This accomplishment did little to bolster public approval of the HDZ, however, as corruption scandals—the most notable involving former prime minister Sanader—bogged down the party throughout the year. Croatia also struggled with the economic malaise that had afflicted the rest of Europe, and, like ruling parties across the continent throughout 2011, the HDZ suffered for it at the polls. In the general election on December 4, 2011, the opposition Kukuriku coalition, headed by Zoran Milanović of the SDP, swept the HDZ from power and claimed an overall majority in parliament, winning 80 of 151 seats. Just days after the election, as Milanović began the work of constructing his government, Croatia signed the accession treaty that would enable it to join the EU in 2013. In a referendum held in January 2012, accession received approval from two-thirds of Croatian voters, but voter turnout, at 43.6 percent, marked the lowest level of participation for any poll on EU entry. Nevertheless, thousands celebrated in Zagreb on July 1, 2013, when Croatia completed its decadelong accession journey to become the 28th member of the EU.

Croatia; European UnionCustoms officers from Croatia and Slovenia sharing a toast June 30, 2013, shortly before Croatia's accession to the European Union.Srdjan Zivulovic—Reuters/Landov

While full EU membership opened the door to financial assistance, Croatia did not make effective use of EU structural funds to help improve its business climate, and the country faced its sixth consecutive year of recession in 2014. As public finances deteriorated, investor confidence weakened, and Croatia’s sovereign credit rating suffered. Critics blamed successive governments for failing to introduce reform, partly because of public mistrust of market capitalism.

Opposition candidate Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović narrowly topped incumbent Josipović in balloting in January 2015, becoming Croatia’s first woman president. The election was seen as a referendum on Milanović’s centre-left government, and the defeat of Josipović, who had enjoyed widespread popularity throughout much of his term, signaled dissatisfaction with the pace of Croatia’s economic recovery.

CroatiaDesperate migrants trying to board a train at the border between Croatia and Serbia, September 2015.Giulio Piscitelli/contrasto/Redux

Domestic politics was complicated further by the European migrant crisis, which saw refugees from North Africa, the Middle East, and Afghanistan attempting to transit Croatia en route to northern Europe. As neighbouring countries enacted tighter border restrictions, tens of thousands of migrants became trapped in Croatia. In early November 2015 the European Commission offered $18 million in emergency funding to help pay for police officers deployed along the Croatian-Serbian border and to fund temporary detention centres. By that point, well over 300,000 migrants had entered Croatia.

Parliamentary elections held on November 8, 2015, were inconclusive, with the HDZ and SDP finishing in a dead heat. Elsewhere in Europe, far right parties had capitalized on the migrant crisis by stoking nationalist sentiment, but Croatian voters largely supported Milanović’s evenhanded response, and that enabled the SDP to cut into the HDZ’s pre-election lead. Weeks of coalition talks followed, with the centrist Bridge of Independent Lists (Most Nezavisnih Lista) ultimately acting as kingmakers for the HDZ. In January 2016 Tihomir Orešković was sworn in as the nonpartisan technocratic head of a centre-right coalition government. Orešković, a pharmaceutical executive who held dual Croatian and Canadian citizenship, seemingly was chosen for his financial acumen, as Croatia struggled to maintain the fragile economic recovery that had begun in late 2015.

After just five months in office, however, Orešković’s government was toppled by a vote of no confidence after a bribery scandal enveloped one of his deputy prime ministers. The HDZ emerged as the winner in snap elections held on September 11, 2016, and the following month HDZ leader Andrej Plenković was confirmed as prime minister at the head of a centre-right coalition government. Plenković presided over a healthy economic recovery, but further integration with the EU was hindered by Croatia’s ongoing border dispute with Slovenia. In June 2017 the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague ruled in favour of Slovenia, stating that a “junction area” should be created in the Adriatic Sea that would allow Slovenian shipping to pass through waters claimed by Croatia. Plenković rejected the decision as nonbinding and declared that it would not be implemented.

Croatia marked the five-year anniversary of its accession to the EU on July 1, 2018. With that landmark came the expiration of labour regulations that had limited the rights of Croatian citizens to pursue work throughout the EU. While many EU members lifted these labour controls on or ahead of that date, several countries, including Austria and Slovenia, elected to extend the restrictions for an additional two years.